First in February 2013, when Fiona Reid led a second Batwatch trip to the country (for a full report of the tour see here). Although I could only get away from work for a weekend, I couldn’t resist the chance to catch bats emerging from the lava tubes of Masaya Volcano and spend a night on the beach at San Juan del Sur. See here for a trip report. In Feb 2014 I returned for 4 nights, this time with Jose Gabriel Martinez and Luis Guttierez, to visit Refugio Bartola, in the south-east on the border with Costa Rica (where Fiona’s 2013 tour had gone), and for more batting at Masaya. See here for a trip report. And in March 2016 I returned,again with Jose Gabriel Martinez and Luis Guttierez, for a mega 8 nights for a trip through Rivas and Jinotega departments then back to Refugio Bartola. See here for a trip report.

Apoyo Lake

Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya

I spent time here bat netting for a night 2013 and another in 2014, and two hours in 2016. In 2013: Mesoamerican (formerly Parnell’s) and Lesser Moustached Bats, plus Davy’s and Big Naked-backed Bats emerging from lava tubes. In 2014 we caught Thomas’s and Jamaican Fruit-eating Bats, Grey Short-tailed Bat, Commissaris’s , Common and Gray’s Long-tongued Bats and a Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse. I also saw a Southern Spotted Skunk, Mexican Porcupine and Central American Woolly Opossum, plus a roost of Grey Sac-winged Bats with a few Common Long-tongued Bats thrown in. In 2016 we failed to find the Hairy-legged Vampire Bats in a lava tube, and saw just a few Common Long-tongued Bats and some Seba’s Short-tailed Bats.

Rio San Juan Department

Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus)

El Castillo

Refugio Bartola

During a three night stay in 2014 we saw Smoky Bat, Spix’s Disc-winged Bat, Proboscis Bat, Greater and Lesser White-lined Bats, Common Vampire Bat, Woolly False Vampire Bat, Riparian Myotis, Chestnut, Seba’s and Sowell’s Short-tailed Bats, Great and Pygmy Fruit-eating Bats, Hairy Big-eared Bat and Lesser Fishing Bat, Commissaris’s and Common Long-tongued Bats. Water Opposum, Central American Agouti, Central American Spider Monkey, Mantled Howler Monkey, Kinkajou, Red-tailed and Deppe’s Squirrel, Mexican Porcupine, Central American Woolly Opossum and we heard a Jaguar. We returned for an afternoon in 2016 and added Dusky Rice Rat to the list, as well as some of the bats we’d seen previously.

The World’s Best Mammalwatching

Nicaragua hit the mammalwatching headlines in 2013 with news that a young Nicaraguan biologist was able to catch Water Opossums (Yapoks) by hand. That biologist – Jose Gabriel Martinez – very quickly became the stuff of legend. The man has an uncanny ability to catch animals. In fact it borders on a superpower. I’ve watched him crawl into a hollow log and snatch a bat out of the air in the dark, and leap over a fence to land on a mouse. Jose organised some intense – and record breaking – mammal trips around his homeland. In 2016 he and I found 86 species in 8 days! Jose Gab is now at graduate school in the USA, so like several other mammalwatchers I am counting the days until he graduates and returns home. Meanwhile check out his photos. See more of the World’s Best Mammalwatching.

Nicaragua, 2016: Fiona Reid, 14 days and another incredible haul: 84 species including Pale-faced Bat, Greater Doglike Bat, Spectral Bat, Zeledon’s Mouse Opossum and the first record for Nicaragua of a Rufous Tree Rat.

Nicaragua, 2015: Fiona Reid, 14 days and an incredible 87 species with a ton of cool bats including Spectral Bat and Wrinkle-faced Bat, Jaguarundi, Zeledon’s Mouse Opposum and much much more. An incredible 2 weeks. Not satisfied with the 87 species, Mike Richardson extended his tour for 3 days and saw 25 species, another 5 or 6 of which were new for the tour including Woolly Funnel-eared and Big-crested Mastiff Bats.

Nicaragua, 2013: Fiona Reid Batwatch Tour, 8 days & 48 species on a great tour that included some stuff rarely recorded on trips, including some cool bats and rodents and, best of all in my opinion, a Water Opposum.

Nicaragua, 2011: Fiona Reid Batwatch Tour, 8 days & 40 species of bats caught (plus other critters seen but not recorded here).